14/7/24
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Click below to read this week's information and latest news.
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Services this week
Sun 14 June
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
4pm - St Margaret's Evening prayer
Thurs 18 June
10.30am - Holy Communion at Ven Bede
Dates for your Diary
Sat 20 July
Cancelled due to illness - St Margaret's Patronal festival
Wed 24 July
Re-scheduled PCC at Ven Bede
Sat 3 Aug
Benstock Festival
News
BENSTOCK '24
It's back! On Saturday 3rd August at St James' Church.
Buy your tickets at benstock.org
Benstock 24 is the biggest music festival in Benwell this year. Stacked with the best up-and-coming talent and established names, this is the place to feel the beats and dig the vibes. Chill with the music and enjoy a night to remember.
Bands, licensed bar and more!
Free family friendly art and activities from 3pm.
Bands from 5.30pm - tickets £10 (or £5 for those who are unwaged).
All proceeds will go to the 'Something Wonderful' project, working with the vulnerable and isolated and strengthening the community of Benwell. More info at benwellscotswood.com/somethingwonderful
Cancelled: St Margaret's Patronal festival
Due to illness unfortunately we will have to this event on Saturday 20th July at St Margaret's in Scotswood
The service on Sunday 21st at 9.45 will still go ahead and we will keep St Margaret's patronal festival then by celebrating the eucharist together. Please join us if you can.
David's farewell celebration
A celebration of David’s ministry of over 39 years, and farewell to David and Elspeth as they prepare to leave Benwell and Scotswood.
Sunday 11th August 4 pm at St James, Benwell
Farewell Eucharist to mark David’s retirement
Preacher: Revd Yvonne Greener, Area Dean of Gateshead
Followed by Celebration Supper in St James Church Hall until 8pm
(food will be provided but all contributions welcome!)
Embrace - Gaza appeal
The people of Gaza are living through an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Israel’s response has led to indiscriminate civilian suffering, with residents forced to move from place to place in search of safety. Food and medical supplies have all but run out; water, electricity, and fuel have been cut off.
The people of Gaza were already on their knees with 80% of residents reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. Please, can you make a donation into help in their hour of need?
You can donate online, by clicking below, or by calling 01494 897950. Your gift will support Embrace’s Christian partners in the immediate aftermath of this humanitarian crisis and to help to heal the wounds it’s caused across Israel – Palestine.
Sunday Worship
Sunday 14 July 2024
Trinity 7
Green
Readings
Amos 7.7–15
7 This is what he showed me: the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb-line, with a plumb-line in his hand. 8And the Lord said to me, ‘Amos, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘A plumb-line.’ Then the Lord said,‘See, I am setting a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass them by;9 the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’
10 Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying, ‘Amos has conspired against you in the very centre of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 11For thus Amos has said,“Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.” ’12And Amaziah said to Amos, ‘O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, earn your bread there, and prophesy there; 13but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.’
14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, ‘I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycomore trees, 15and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
Mark 6.14–29
14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 15But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ 16But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’
17 For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. 18For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ 19And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 22When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ 23And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ 24She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ 25Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, ‘I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.’ 26The king was deeply grieved; yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her. 27Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, 28brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body, and laid it in a tomb.
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
Paulette Thompson
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michelle Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Hilary Dixon
Lynn Mosby
Nelly
Irene Scaife
Other
The ongoing situation in Russia, Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Sudan and all other places at war.
If you would like to add someone to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
The name will stay on the list for 1 month unless requested to be long-term.
Sermon
Revd Chris
Our passage begins with a scared ruler. Herod heard the stories that we read in our gospel passage last week: Jesus’ disciples had gone out “proclaiming that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.”
The passage goes on to tell us why Herod is wracked with fear, paranoid that his actions have literally come back to haunt him. People are talking, maybe this Jesus is John the Baptist raised from the dead? A charismatic leader wandering in the desert regions, accumulating devoted disciples, and sending them out two by two to preach repentance of sins.
*
The background to this is a gruesome little story within a story, a ghost story almost or, to Herod maybe more like a zombie film. It reads like something from the Old Testament, or a folk tale of sorts, a cautionary tale polished by generations of re-telling, telling us to beware if we act without morality.
*
In the story Herod’s moral angst is played out on the stage of his court. He has divorced his first wife and married Herodias, his brother-in-law’s wife. Since his brother-in-law was still alive at the time, this was against Jewish law. And John the Baptist was unafraid to say something about it. Herod feared John, he knew John was a righteous and holy man respected for his morality, so Herod protects him.
*
Herodias, his wife, resents John, and resents how Herod protects him. So she takes the opportunity of Herod’s birthday banquet to exploit Herod’s vanity when the court full of all the important people of the land. Herodias weaponises her own daughter, she sends her in to dance what has later come to be known as the ‘dance of the seven veils’. This is a purely fictional development of the story created by Oscar Wilde, it suggests she performed a burlesque type of dance to seduce Herod into giving her what she wants. Whatever the dance was like, it certainly impressed Herod and his court enough that he offers her up to half his kingdom.
*
But Herodias already knows what she wants, she is the chief manipulator, and Herod is the morally bankrupt and dumb subject. She instructs her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
Herod would rather murder someone righteous and good than look like a fool himself. But it leaves him as the nervous wreck we encounter in the Gospel, fearing that Jesus is John raised from the dead, another Baptist, another Elijah-figure.
*
John the Baptist is such an important figure in Christianity because he is seen as the last of the prophets of the ‘old covenant’ – the promise of God’s commitment to his people which that runs throughout the story of the Old Testament. But here, he is almost presented as the first ‘Christian’ martyr of sorts. ‘Christianity’ as a religion didn’t exist at this point, but Jesus already walked on the earth and John the Baptist had declared him to be Christ. John’s movement, his many followers, were becoming one and the same with Jesus’ movement and followers.
Through the gruesome tale of the beheading of John the Baptist we are reminded that the story of God’s love for the world is continuous with the ‘old testament’. Here we see the kingdom of God crashing into earthly kingdoms, revealing them for what they are. We are shown the danger that Christ has stepped into.
*
We are shown an earthly kingdom where Herod rules with fear and is therefore haunted by holiness. Whereas the kingdom of God by contrast, is one where people are united in their pursuit of helping, healing, and holiness. A kingdom not based on earthly treasures and political power, but compassion. A kingdom that puts the last first, that gives care and attention to the most vulnerable, where those with power put themselves last in order to serve others. A kingdom where leaders give away earthly possessions and power, rather than accumulate them. Where they simply ‘shake the dust from their feet’ rather than murder to avoid embarrassment.
*
We see still to this day that fear breeds fear. When our governments play with populism and culture wars, grand gestures and gimmicks, then this is what we are led to. To save face, we must persecute the vulnerable rather than help them, blame the powerless for our own failures. Our government would rather blame vulnerable people for their own deaths on the English channel than give them a safe route. And many of you from Iran know all too well the trauma and pain caused by a ruler who fears his own loss of power.
We all create little kingdoms for ourselves, but as the kingdom of God draws near, what is in our heart is exposed, a light is shone on it. The kingdom of God has crashed into our world and is growing. The kingdom of God is here in our scriptures, in the holy spirit, in the eucharist, and in one another. This is a kingdom that does not need the dangerous mix of state and religion, a kingdom that reveals fear and hypocrisy, that values, and demands, all to be treated with dignity and compassion. A kingdom that transforms the heart as well as the mechanics of power. As our government changes, whatever your political point of view, as Christians try to take the view that God has for his creation – demand unconditional love and be prepared to always have compassion for those who are most in need.
*
Amen.